


The sky is always blue

by wherebluebirdsfly



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: F/F, coffee shop AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-08
Updated: 2015-04-23
Packaged: 2018-03-21 22:44:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3706587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wherebluebirdsfly/pseuds/wherebluebirdsfly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If there is one thing Lexa knows, it's rejection. But that doesn't mean that it doesn't hurt just as much every time it happens. When Lexa's foster parents announce that they are moving across the country and she is not invited to come with, she is suddenly thrown head-first into a world of adulthood and responsibility, and she has nothing.</p><p>Little does she know that a visit at a random coffee shop could be what turns things around when she is introduced to the life of the blonde girl she meets inside. But are the new bonds that form enough to heal the wounds of her past?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 1

**Author's Note:**

> After being an avid fic reader for years I decided to give it a go myself, so please let me know what you think :) And please tell me if there are any mistakes so I can correct them!
> 
> Can also be found @ commander-heda-lexa.tumblr.com
> 
> Characters will be added in the description as they are introduced.

She’s shaking. She hasn’t noticed until now, but she’s shaking. She spent the last ten minutes desperately throwing most of what little things she actually owns into her suitcase and when she sits down on her bed, she allows herself to feel. She replays the conversation that took place ten minutes earlier in her head.

She had just come home from her job at the nursing home and was entering the dining room for dinner when her foster mother approached her.

 ”Lexa, we have to talk to you about something.” Lexa was slightly alarmed at the cautious tone Indra was using. ”I’m going to get straight to the point here. I have been offered a job position in Boston. It’s a once in a lifetime chance that I cannot turn down. We are moving at the end of the month.”

”Boston? But… That is across the country from here, I couldn’t just leave my mother behind like that.”

”No Lexa, we are moving,” Indra clarified, gesturing towards herself and her husband who was standing idly beside her, ”Tristan and I. I’m sorry.”

Lexa is one hundred percent certain that she has never felt more stupid in her entire life than she did in that moment. She had simply assumed that her foster parents, who had been her guardians and family for thirteen years, would have thought to bring her along. The split second for which she had thought they were just informing her about the situation, leaving her to make her own decision, was enough to make her anxious. But upon realizing that they weren’t offering her to come with them but that they were, in fact, trying to tell her that their job as her stand-in parents was done, she felt very humiliated. And also slightly panicked.

”Oh. I understand,” she said, quickly leaving the room before the tears she felt pricking behind her eyelids started to well up. Her eyesight was blurry before she reached her room, but at least they didn’t see her cry. She didn’t want them to know how much this hurt her. She didn’t want to make them feel guilty, or even sorry for her.

Because in all honesty, she has no right to. It is true that they have no obligations towards her anymore. She turned eighteen three months ago and they have been nice enough to let her stay with them without as much as a comment about the fact that she is now of age and not their responsibility anymore. Yet Lexa can’t rid herself of the feeling of rejection, a familiar feeling that makes her heart physically hurt while also forming a lump in her throat that makes it really hard for her to swallow.

What is she going to do now? She glances at her phone to check the date and realizes she has twenty days to figure it out. It’s not like she hasn’t thought about her future at all, she knew she couldn’t stay at her foster parents’ forever, but since they haven’t said a word about it up until now, she thought they were letting her take some time to figure it out. Now she has twenty days.

She decides to go for a bike ride to clear her mind. Being inside their house makes her feel like she is being suffocated and she really needs some fresh air. It’s 7:30 pm, but living in California pretty much means hot weather all year round so she slips out of the sweatpants she had put on when she got home and puts on a pair of denim shorts before she grabs her keys, some money and leaves the house through the back door connected to her room.

—

Lexa feels the blood pumping through her veins and her lungs are burning but she doesn’t stop pedaling. She pedals like her damn life depends on it, and it makes her feel alive. It makes her forget for a minute. She knows it’s only a temporary sensation but she allows herself to enjoy the carefreeness of feeling the wind against her face while the exhaustion slowly builds up inside of her. Her foster parents live a twenty-five minute regular bike ride outside of the city but when she reaches the McDonald’s that signals the beginning of the city center, Lexa looks at her watch and realizes she has gotten there in only fourteen minutes. Her previous record was sixteen and she had wanted to puke after that, so she has no idea how she managed this without even having speed as a parameter in mind.

She keeps going for another ten minutes, only stopping at a red light she can’t avoid. When she has passed the mall she slows down, realizing she hasn’t been on this side of the city for nearly two years. She does her best to shake off the unpleasant feeling that creeps up on her and when she hears her stomach rumble she decides she will stop at the nearest place that sells food to get a something to eat.

Looking down the street she spots a sign that says ”Frank’s Coffee Shop”. They probably have some sandwiches or salads, which she thinks sounds more than great right now, so she steps off her bike and locks it at the nearest lamppost.

When she reaches the coffee shop she slowly opens the heavy door and looks around inside. She’s the only customer there. The place is pretty small and has a shabby chic kind of feeling over it, with mismatched chairs and tables, and walls covered in worn down paint. Lexa oddly finds herself liking it. She is usually the kind who wants her spaces neat and tidy but this place feels warm and comforting.

She walks up to the counter behind which a blonde girl is standing bent down, seemingly looking for something on the floor. She waits while the girl shuffles around for a bit but when she gets down on her knees trying to get a look under the counter without acknowledging her at all, Lexa clears her throat to get her attention. The scared shriek the girl lets out at that actually makes Lexa chuckle, before she remembers again that she is in fact not particularly happy right now.

The girl stands up straight, looking flustered.

”Hi. Hello. Wel- uh, welcome. I’m sorry about that, I didn’t hear you come through the door and today has been really slow so I wasn’t expecting anybody to come in.”

”Thank you, and it’s fine,” Lexa replies. She’s not a big fan of small talk so she decides it’s safest to get straight to the point. ”I’ll have a cream cheese bagel and a black coffee, thank you.”

”Okay, um, you don’t happen to wish to pay by card?” The girl asks looking kind of apologetic.

What a strange way to ask about preferred payment method, Lexa thinks to herself before answering the question. ”No I only have cash. Is that a problem?”

”See the reason I was crawling around the floor is that my dear friend and coworker Raven”, she says, emphasizing the name with a tone of half mock/half serious annoyance, ”has lost the key to the cash register, which happened to be locked at the moment, and she just left so I can’t really accept cash right now,” the girl explains.

”All right, I’m sorry, but I’ll have to find someplace else then,” Lexa says and starts to turn around.

”No wait!” The girl interjects. ”How about this – you get your order for free in exchange for helping me look for the damn key?”

Lexa is starving and thinks about the offer for approximately one second before replying.

”That sounds fair enough.”

”Awesome!” The girl’s face lights up like a ten thousand watt light bulb at Lexa’s response. ”I’m Clarke!”

”Nice to meet you Clarke,” Lexa says, and despite not being the biggest people person in the world she actually feels like she means it. ”I’m Lexa”.

—

Lexa is the one to find the key. It takes her about thirty seconds, but that isn’t as much due to her magical powers of searching for lost items as it is to the fact that the key lies on the floor right under the table where she decides she is going to sit down and have her bagel.

”You can stop looking, Clarke,” she informs the other girl who quickly strides over to her.

”What? Did you- but how? Where?” Clarke sounds surprised, like she had mentally already given up on finding the key.

”It was under my table,” Lexa says, handing over the key.

”I can’t believe it. Raven must have dropped it when she was wiping off the tables earlier. Thank you so much, Lexa! You’re my hero.”

Lexa doesn’t know what to say to that so she remains silent.

”Hey, that means you can pay for your order now.” Clarke’s facial expression changes slightly when she says it, but Lexa can’t quite decipher what it means so she simply agrees and digs into her pocket to pull out the ten dollar bill she put there before she left.

”No, god, I was just kidding! You found the key I’ve been looking for for the past forty-five minutes, that is enough payment for the rest of the month,” Clarke says with a grin on her face before adding ”Raven will pay for anything you’d like. She has no say in the matter.”

Lexa barely hears the last part though. She kind of lost focus after the words ”for the rest of the month”, as she was reminded all over again about the fact that after the end of the month, she will be homeless. Actually, even if she did have somewhere to live, she would be incapable of paying rent since her half time job at the nursing home pays way below what would be considered a decent salary even for the full-time workers. But it’s a job, and Lexa likes spending time with elderly people. She does, however, realize that soon, that won’t be enough and that thought makes her very nervous.

When she looks back at Clarke she notices that the girl’s smile is gone and she is looking Lexa with what could only be described as concern. Why on earth would this stranger look at her like that?

”Hey, is everything okay?” the girl asks carefully, as if she’s afraid to overstep any boundaries.

”Yes. No. I don't know” Lexa has no idea why she’s telling her this but the words just keep falling out of her mouth. ”If you could find me a job I’d be a lot better off.” Okay, maybe it was unnecessary to be snarky with the only person who has been genuinely nice to her in a while but what’s done is done. It’s not like she can unsay the words now.

”You need a job? Is that why you look so…” she doesn’t finish the sentence but Lexa can think of several suitable adjectives describing what she must look like; pathetic, poor, depressing, awful. To not make the situation weirder, though, she decides to ignore this and simply answers the question.

”That would make things easier, yes,” Lexa tries, her voice a little softer.

”Well, one of the girls did her last day here yesterday and I haven’t heard of any replacement yet. Maybe you could come by tomorrow? My boss is doing inventory and will be here all day. I start at ten so if you stop by around lunchtime I will get a chance to talk to her, put in a good word for you.”

The suggestion takes her by surprise as she didn’t think Clarke would care about what she had said. Why would this sweet girl even want to be coworkers with her? She has been nothing but awkward and unthankful to her since she got here. What good word could she possibly put in for her? On the other hand, what does she have to lose?

”That’s very sweet of you, I would like that very much.”

”Awesome!” Clarke chirps, and the big smile is back on her face. It suits her, Lexa notices, but she wills the thought away as quickly as it enters her head.

—

Lexa finishes her bagel and coffee in silence while Clarke serves another customer that just walked in. Looks like someone else finally decided to stop by and Clarke seems thrilled about it. She knows she should think about what she’s going to do after her foster parents move but her eyes keeps drifting back to the happy girl behind the counter and if she’s being completely honest, it feels good to just not think about depressing things for a moment. She’ll deal with it later. Besides, by some lucky twist of fate she managed to get a maybe-kind-of-sort-of chance to get an interview, so she allows herself to feel content with just sitting there for a while.

The man leaves with his tall coffee and chicken panini just as Lexa is gathering her stuff to leave.

”Leaving already?” Clarke asks as she walks over to remove Lexa’s cup and bagel wrapping from the table.

”Yes. I should get home.” Home. It feels strange to call it that now that she knows that her foster parents never truly saw it as that. A place to live for a while, maybe, but not a home. With a knotted feeling in her stomach she opens the door.

”Okay, well, I’ll see you tomorrow then?”

Lexa turns around to look at the other girl. ”Yes, see you tomorrow Clarke.”

The soft smile on Clarke’s lips is the last thing Lexa sees before she steps out into the warm air, and despite attempts to think of something else it lingers in her mind all the way back to her house.


	2. 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long, I've been super busy these past two weeks but here's chapter 2 :)

It’s dark outside now and Lexa turns off her bike light about 50 yards before she reaches the house. She’s not sure her foster parents even noticed she left, but she doesn’t want to risk bringing attention to her arriving either way. That would mean reminding them further of her existence and that is something she doesn’t want right now. She climbs off the bike and locks it by the fence before successfully walking the small, somewhat overgrown, cobblestone walkway leading to her backdoor without kicking or stepping on anything.

When she closes the door behind her she lets out a breath she didn’t even know she had been holding. Clinking sounds emerge from the kitchen, which Lexa recognizes as Indra putting the clean dishes away. She can also make out that the TV is on in the living room, but most of the sound from it is drowned out by Tristan’s loud snores. He always falls asleep on the couch after dinner and tonight is apparently no exception. Lexa feels her heart twinge a bit. It’s so obvious how tonight was of no special significance to her foster parents. Nothing that made them act or feel differently, no need to talk or even feel uneasy enough to not fall asleep on the couch.

She would do anything to get out of here right now, but she has nowhere to go. Had the circumstances been different, she might have called Lincoln. He lives an hour and a half outside of town, but it would still have been better than staying here. However, seeing as it was his parents who brought this situation on, she senses it might be slightly awkward to call him about it. Besides, she doesn’t know how much he knows yet. She doubts he would have known without telling her. Then again, she had thought her foster parents were asking her to come with them, so maybe she doesn’t know this family as well as she thought she did.

As if on cue though, she feels her phone buzzing in her pocket and when she looks at the screen it says ’The Incredible Hulk’. Lexa was not the one to put that name in her address book, that’s for sure. She answers the call but her voice sounds weak when she speaks.

”Hey Linc.”

”Lexa, hi,” he starts. He never greets her with her first name. He always has a new nickname at hand, so it kind of surprises her a bit even if she thinks she might have an idea about the reasons behind it. ”I just got off the phone with mom.” So her suspicions were correct, but she doesn’t really know how to respond.

”Okay…”

”I want you to know that I do not agree with them. I think they’re being very selfish and I had expected them to ask you to come too. You’re as much a part of this family as I am.”

Lexa feels her heart drop at that.

”You’re leaving too?” She can feel a lump growing in her throat and she knows that the tears are close again. Of course they would ask him. She had thought that maybe they wouldn’t because he’s 23 and in college but she shouldn’t be surprised.

”No. No, I’m not. I still have a year before I graduate here and you know I wouldn’t leave your sweet monkey face behind like that.”

The lump in her throat is still there but she feels the corners of her mouth tug upwards at those words. She is so thankful for Lincoln. He really is like an older brother to her and even though she can never feel completely reassured of it, because it’s in her nature to doubt anybody’s affection for her, his loyalty has always been with her when it comes to their family. He has always been there when the others have not.

”I hope college was the main reason you chose to stay in California.” Lexa does not want to be the one to hold him back. Not that she thinks that he cares enough that he would stay solely because of her, but she still needs to make sure.

”College made a move impossible, no matter other circumstances, but I’m 23 and have no desire whatsoever to move with my parents across the country to a city I’ve never even been, to have them be the only people within a two-thousand mile radius that I know. It sounds even more like a nightmare now that I say it out loud.” Lexa can’t help but chuckle a bit as she imagines Lincoln shiver out of mock horror. ”But I really do mean that I wouldn’t leave you like that. And I know you don’t believe it, but it’s the truth.”

It feels nice to hear him say that. He’s right that she doesn’t really believe him, not whole-heartedly, but it doesn’t stop her from feeling just a little bit better from his words.

”Thanks Linc.”

”Hey, you have nothing to thank me for. But, uh… I don’t really know how to ask this but have- uh, have you thought about what you’re going to do?” Lexa can hear how he treads carefully here, how he’s trying to be as respectful as possible but that he is worried about her. Yet she feels the lump in her throat tightening and she knows she won’t be able to utter many words before she will start to cry.

”I’ll figure it out.” Her voice sounds thick and she wants to end this call now, before he notices.

”You know you can always crash on my couch if you wanna.”

Lexa takes a deep breath before replying. ”Thanks. I have to go now, but I’ll call you tomorrow.”

”Alright, talk to you tomorrow then you lil’ brat.”

”Bye.” And at that, she hangs up. She feels bad for cutting him off like that but she doesn’t need him to know how pathetically sad this situation has made her. She is 18, which means she is legally an adult. Crying over how her foster parents didn’t ask her to move with them, when in reality she should be thankful they haven’t kicked her out yet, is not something an adult should do. Rather than reinforcing positivity, though, that thought does nothing but make her feel worse.

She decides she should try to get some sleep. Both Indra and Tristan will be gone by the time she wakes up so she will be able to use the other rooms in the house without having to sneak around in order to avoid a situation where she has to talk to them.

It’s only 9 but in all honesty she feels rather exhausted so she changes into a pair of pajama bottoms and a tank top and slips under the covers. It takes her about an hour and a half to actually fall asleep though, and she wakes up more times than usual this night.

—

The sixth time she wakes up it’s not with clammy hands and a shortness of breath. She wakes up because her room has gone completely lit up by sunlight. The first rays of the sun peak around the southeastern corner of her house, and unfortunately right into her room, around 7:30 during this time of year. The lack of blinds and the, for this cause, completely unhelpful white curtains means that by 7:50, there is no way she can sleep anymore. It doesn’t really bother her though. She doesn’t like sleeping in very much as it makes her feel lazy, and it takes away the valuable morning hours where she has made a habit of going out for a run ever since she graduated two months ago.

She rubs her eyes and grabs her phone from her bedside table. No new messages or missed calls. She rarely has but she always checks to make sure, mainly to make sure her boss hasn’t tried to reach her.

She puts away her phone and gets up from the bed. The house is silent, as she knew it would be, so she walks down the hall to the kitchen and grabs a banana. When she has finished it she puts on a pair of shorts, a tank top and her running shoes and heads out.

—

It’s two hours later when she has finished her breakfast and showered and she realizes she has about two more hours to kill before she’s supposed to be back at the coffee shop. It would probably be a good idea to look at options for places to live, she thinks, so she takes her ancient laptop from the shelf and sits down cross legged on her bed, leaning her back against the headboard with an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach.

After checking listings at craigslist and some private landlords’ webpages she realizes finding a room mate would definitely be the cheapest option, but even that is too expensive for her if she doesn’t get another job. She simply has no other option but to charm the pants off this boss of Clarke’s. That’s the ’what’ she needs to do. ’How’ is the better question because out of all positive traits a human being can possess, ’charm’ has never been on the list of words to describe Lexa. Ambitious, yes. Strong, yes. A leader, yes. Maybe even intelligent. But never charming. Charming people know they are charming. The whole point of being charming, as contemptuous as it might sound, is being able to use it for your benefit and having nobody realize it and Lexa just doesn’t know how to do that. But she will make sure to give it her best shot.

—

Before opening the door to the coffee shop Lexa glances at her phone to check the time. 12:57. After checking the apartment listings she had spent an hour and a half drying her hair, putting on makeup and changing clothes three times before settling for a pair of dark blue skinny jeans and a loose fitting white tank top, paired with her faux leather jacket. It had taken her longer than expected and the bike ride took a good thirty-five minutes because she did not want to show up all sweaty and gross.

Feeling a little nervous she walks in and looks around. A dark haired girl is handing a customer his order and a familiar looking blonde is shuffling around facing away from the door. She’s taking out a muffin pan from the oven and swears, probably a bit (a lot) louder than she should, when she can’t find a place to put it down, because the rack is full and it seems like the heat is starting to get to her hands through the mitts. She finally drops it down on the sink and shakes her hand vigorously as if to shake off the heat. Lexa shakes her head and lets out a chuckle.

The coffee shop seems a lot busier today than yesterday. Maybe it has to do with the fact that it’s lunch time, or just past, but it makes Lexa happy to see. She damns her habit of growing attached to things so easily, she found this coffee shop less than 24 hours ago, and she should really care about how it’s doing. But it’s nonetheless with a fluttery feeling in her heart, caused solely by her fondness of this place she tells herself firmly, that she returns Clarke’s smile when the blonde girl emerges from behind the counter.

”Well hello there, stranger,” Clarke says, looking rather mysterious.

”Lexa,” Lexa corrects her. She had told her yesterday but it’s not farfetched to think that she probably didn’t make as strong of an impression at Clarke as Clarke had done her. ”My name is Lexa.”

”Yeah I know, I was just- never mind. Hey Lexa, I’m glad you decided to come.” It sounds like Clarke actually means it and the wide grin she shoots Lexa only reinforces that notion. Lexa, on the other hand, feels rather stupid for not realizing sooner that Clarke was only joking when she called her ’stranger’.

”Hi Clarke. Of course I would come, I’m the one who needs this, aren’t I?” She smiles to make sure her words don’t come off as arrogant. Clarke lets out a small laugh, an appreciative huff rather, at that.

”Right. Well actually I should apologize for asking you to come by around lunch time because my boss apparently had a lunch date with a friend so she’s not here now. She’ll probably be back in about fifteen but my lunch break just started, so if you want to sit with me while you wait then you’re more than welcome to do so.”

Just when Lexa opens her mouth to accept the invitation, because what else would she do there really, Clarke starts talking again.

”You know what, do you want anything? Raven is right over there,” she points towards the brunette behind the counter, ”and as I told you yesterday, anything you want is on her.” She says the last part extra loudly, deliberately so that Raven will hear her, which she does judging by the glare she sends Clarke’s way. When she looks over at Lexa, though, her face turns softer.

”So you’re the hero, I take it?” She calls from where she’s standing. Lexa isn’t too fond of raising her voice so she takes a few steps closer to the counter before replying.

”That would be an overstatement, if not an outright lie. The key was right under my table, I hadn’t even started looking for it when I found it.”

”Wow, the way Clarke has been talking you up today I would’ve thought you had some super cool x-ray vision that you had used or something. But thanks, you kinda saved me there.” She leans in Lexa’s direction and puts her hand around her mouth, lowering her voice. ”Angry Clarke is something you want to avoid at all costs.”

”I heard that.”

Raven shoots her friend a ’sorry’ and directs her attention to Lexa again. ”Seriously though, Clarke is right. I owe you. What do you want?”

”You don’t have to buy me anything.” Lexa can’t help but wonder what Clarke possibly could have told Raven about her that would qualify as talking her up? There had been no up-talk worthy material to gather from last night, that much Lexa was sure of. She had, in all honesty, been pretty rude to the girl.

Just a second too late Lexa realizes that Raven said something but she had zoned out and didn’t catch what.

”I’m sorry, what did you say?”

Raven looks at her suspiciously. ”I said that of course I’ll get you something but that I wouldn’t be sad if you didn’t choose the most expensive items on the menu since I’m a student and only work a couple of hours here a week.”

”Oh bullshit Raven,” Clarke interjects. ”You work here almost as much as I do. Just because you’re enrolled in college and are magically passing your classes despite hardly ever setting foot in school, it doesn’t mean you’re poor. So you don’t get to play the ’broke student’ card. Your gifted mind finally comes back to bite you in the ass and it’s glorious.” She raises her eyebrows triumphantly.

Lexa thinks that Clarke and Raven must be very close judging by their seemingly endless bantering. She feels a little out of place, because they are clearly talking more to each other than her even if she is was the catalyst for the conversation, but it’s entertaining to watch all the same.

”Whatever,” Raven says and rolls her eyes. ”Go ahead, pick whatever you want so the nitpicker over there can finally shut up.”

To be honest, Lexa is still fairly full from breakfast, but she doesn’t want to seem rude so she agrees on having a cup of coffee and a piece of apple pie. By the time Raven has finished her order, Clarke has both disappeared into the kitchen and then reemerged wearing a gray hoodie over her black uniform t-shirt. She has removed her apron and put her hair up in a bun as well and Lexa can’t help but wonder what caused this alteration of outfit.

The answer is given to her when Clarke explains ”we can’t eat out here wearing our uniforms. I usually eat in the backroom but there isn’t enough space for two there”.

She goes to sit down at an empty table and Lexa follows, pulling out the chair across from her.

”So do you want to tell me why you need a job so bad you came in here looking like the saddest little panda ever yesterday, or do you want to talk about something completely unrelated to that?”

”Unrelated would be good.” Lexa has never been very good at the whole feelings thing, and this whole situation is kind of a lot, so even if she did know how to talk about difficult things she wouldn’t want to bother Clarke with it.

Clarke nods. ”Unrelated it is. So, I’m guessing it’s pointless to ask what you do for a living since you’re here because you need a job.” A swift smile graces her lips before she continues. ”So how old are you?”

Lexa has no idea how Clarke has so much to say all the time, but she’s thankful for it. As much as she dislikes awkward silences, she is more often than not the cause of them.

”I’m 18. You?”

”I turn 21 in two weeks, so that’s gonna be a lot of fun!”

The fact that Clarke is three years older than her does nothing but make her feel even more inferior to this seemingly perfect girl. Well, not perfect perfect, Lexa knows that nobody is perfect, but she has yet to discover a flaw in her. Still, Clarke’s bubbly mood seems to be a bit contagious and Lexa feels herself smile back at the other girl without even having to force it.

”I can imagine. Are you going to celebrate it?”

”Oh yeah, I’m making Raven and Octavia – that’s the girl I’m trying to get you to replace here by the way – throw me a huge ass party.”

”Sounds like you’re going to have a blast then,” Lexa says as cheerfully as possible. ’Cheerful’ is not typically her choice of tone, it hasn’t been in a long time anyway, but it seems to fit with Clarke’s mood and she does want to make a good impression. ”You and Raven seem close,” she adds too because her curiosity is getting the better of her. It seems like not only Clarke’s mood but also her verbosity is contagious because Lexa rarely voices her curiosity like that and now she did it without a second thought.

”She’s my best friend, but don’t tell her I said that,” she says and winks. The tiny gesture makes Lexa’s stomach flutter. She swallows hard to rid herself of the feeling. ”We’ve known each other since we were five. Do you have a best friend?”

Lexa would rather talk about her foster parents kicking her out than best friends but like a godsend the front door opens and the woman walking in catches Clarke’s eye. Without waiting for an answer to the question she just asked Lexa she calls for the woman to come over.

”Hey, Jane, over here!”

Even sitting down Lexa can see that Jane is a short woman. She has dark red, short cut hair and if Lexa had to take a guess she would say she looks about 45. Her face is round and she’s wearing the kindest of smiles.

”Hello sweetie, I take it you’re Lexa?” She extends her hand towards Lexa. ”I’m Jane.”

”Yes, I’m Lexa. Nice to meet you, Jane.”

”I can only say the same. Now if you follow me into the office we can talk some about this arrangement. You can bring your food with you.” She says and nods towards Lexa’s half cup of coffee and barely-touched-yet apple pie.

Lexa wonders what she means by ’arrangement’ but doesn’t ask. Instead she takes her plate and cup and follows Jane, through the kitchen, where a dark-skinned, handsome boy who is kneading some sort of dough nods a silent hello, and into her office. The room consists of a desk section with a computer, a chair and a bookshelf filled with binders and papers and then a section with a couch, an arm chair and a coffee table. She gestures for Lexa to sit down on the couch and she places herself in the armchair.

”So I heard you needed a job.” Jane gives her a sympathetic but warm smile. ”Well aren’t you just lucky, since Octavia quit just two days ago and I actually haven’t had time to fill her spot yet.”

”So I heard. I would really love to work for you, this place has such a wonderful atmosphere and I really think I could be a great asset to the company.”

”Darling, the thing is that as of right now I can’t offer a full time job because there is only a half time position to fill. Octavia only worked here 20 hours a week. I’m sorry if this is an inconvenience for you.”

”No, it would actually be perfect!” It sounds too good to be true to Lexa. ”I have a half time job at a nursing home and I would love it if I could keep working there as well.”

”What days do you work there?”

”Mondays and Wednesdays, I work 10 hour shifts so only two days a week.”

”I think I could work with that,” Jane says, nodding thoughtfully to herself. Lexa has no idea why she makes it sound like she is actually considering giving her the job already, without as much as a question about experience or strengths.

”If Clarke trusts you, so do I. She got me Raven and Jasper and they are two of my best workers so if you want this job, it’s yours.”

Lexa can’t believe her ears. ”Yes. Yes I would absolutely love that.”

”Alright then honey, when can you start?”


End file.
